Concealed carry permit process 'moving right along'

PEORIA — By the time the first concealed carry licenses hit Illinois mailboxes this month, state police had fielded tens of thousands of applications from residents.

By March 6, some 48,951 applicants had completed the online forms requesting a permit. The application process opened on Jan. 5.

Cook County led the state with 12,027 applicants. There also were more Cook County applications that received objections from law enforcement than any other county: 664. Still, the state’s most populous county also represented the lowest concentration of applicants per capita, with 2.3 applications per 1,000 residents.

The home of Chicago is the only county in the state with an average of fewer than 2.5 applicants per 1,000 residents.

Advocates for concealed carry point to the deluge in applications as evidence of a strong interest by citizens in exercising 2nd Amendment rights and complimented Illinois State Police on meeting deadlines to establish the permitting process.

“Some people said they would wait until the last minute to issue these, but that’s not the case,” said Illinois Carry spokeswoman Valinda Rowe. “Right now, we think the process is moving right along. The Illinois State Police are doing a great job.”

The Illinois Carry group formed a decade ago, about the same time neighboring Missouri lawmakers established a concealed carry law. The group’s goal was to advocate for similar legislation in Illinois.

The law in Illinois did not happen until a federal appeals court ruled as unconstitutional the state’s ban on concealed carry in December 2012 and gave lawmakers six months to craft legislation in response. Illinois lawmakers took seven months to approve a bill and then gave state troopers six additional months to develop and implement a regulatory system.

That’s where the Jan. 5 deadline to accept applications originated. But police created a training framework first, allowing trainers to be certified and begin hosting mandatory 16-hour training sessions well before the first date applicants could submit. Certified trainers were allowed to apply for a concealed carry license Dec. 18 as a test of the online application system.

Those who were first in line for licenses expected wait times of 90 to 120 days, the statutory timelines that are contingent upon whether electronic fingerprints were submitted to expedite the process of verifying identities and performing background checks. The shorter approval time was reserved for those who paid extra money to have the electronic fingerprints recorded.

The application review process includes a 30-day window for local law enforcement agencies to submit objections over applicants who have arrest records that could be incompatible with carrying a concealed weapon but don’t fit within the scope of automatic statutory denials — such as having a felony conviction.

Including that objection review period, early license approvals have been coming through in 65 to 75 days, regardless of whether electronic fingerprints were submitted, Rowe said.

The Illinois Carry group and gun control advocates, however, continue to push for changes to the law. Both sides focus primarily on the 23 categories of places where concealed weapons remain prohibited — and whether that list should expand or contract.

Among the most contentious places where hidden weapons remain off limits are parks and public transportation, though the law also prohibits concealed firearms in government buildings, hospitals and on university campuses.

“You have to look at the areas where crimes are committed and take away the ones that don’t make sense — that’s the area of our primary concern,” Rowe said. “People in those places are still in jeopardy.”

More than a dozen bills that would amend the concealed carry law have been proposed, though lawmakers on both sides of the issue claim amendments are unlikely to pass. The law was created through compromise and should be allowed to unfold before any changes are made, they maintain.

Police, meanwhile, have been circulating training materials to officers to guide them through several possible scenarios they could encounter under the law, including varying levels of cooperation from license holders.

“The biggest thing that the training really pushes is common sense,” said Mike Oyer, director of the Mobile Training Unit 7 of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training & Standards Board. There are 16 units in the state, and Oyer covers law enforcement agencies in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties.

Each law enforcement agency is responsible for developing its own policy on how to respond to concealed carry cases, and those responses will depend on input from the state’s attorney in the jurisdiction.

Generally, officers are instructed to make firearm-related arrests for those who have a permit but are carrying their weapon in an unauthorized area, a violation of the state’s concealed carry law. This could lead to a misdemeanor charge and result in the revocation of a license. The same firearm carrying violation by someone without a permit could result in a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon under a different section of the criminal code.

“Each situation should be taken on a case-by-case basis — this law is like every other law in that respect,” Oyer said. “The Legislature can’t spell everything out. That’s what the courts are for — to interpret. The courts are going to make or break the law, one way or another.”

Matt Buedel can be reached at 686-3154 or mbuedel@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @JournoBuedel.

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